Ricky Ponting has been the ODI captain of Australia for a while now and in early 2004 took over as the Test captain after Steve Waugh finally bid farewell to the game. Remarkable in his one-day captaincy, people often term him to be the next Waugh.

Undoubtedly, in the recent times, Ponting has proved himself to be a decisive and effective leader. But the year 2004 saw him sit outside the fence for a few months after he suffered a finger injury during the Champions Trophy in England.

It was during that period that Australia visited India and registered a series victory after 35 years. Though, he watched much of the action from outside, he was present for the last Test in Mumbai.

It was Ponting again who led from the front as the ICC Rest of the World XI beat ACC Asian XI in Melbourne at the tsunami charity match in Melbourne on January 10, 2005.

He lead Australia to a crushing victory in the 2003 World Cup tournament, scoring a hundred in the final to cap off a memorable 12 months. He followed this with his maiden Test double century and another 2 hundreds in the away Test series in the West Indies.

His the 1999-2000 trip to India saw him hit two centuries, but he still may feel he has something to prove after making three ducks in five Test innings during the trip to the sub-continent in 2001 when he failed to come to terms with off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.

His batting can be destructive and his fielding is feverish. He plays his shots all around the wicket and has scored one-day centuries against all the major cricketing nations.

Although vulnerable early in his innings, Ponting is hard to dislodge once established and already has more than 6,500 Test runs to his credit.